Goshen, N.Y. — A worker at the Goshen Secure Center, a locked youth facility run by New York’s child welfare agency, the Office of Children and Family Services, has been charged with raping a 20-year-old resident. Perla T. Serrano Rivera, 22, of Walden, was arrested Sept. 3 and charged with third-degree rape, a felony, along with misdemeanor charges tied to official misconduct and bringing contraband to residents, according to New York State Police as reported by News 12 and The Imprint. The charges are allegations and have not been proven in court.
State police said the resident, “due to the circumstances of their confinement, was unable to consent to sexual conduct,” The Imprint reported. Police also said Serrano Rivera brought contraband into the facility and gave it to residents but did not say what it was, according to News 12.
Inside the OCFS Goshen Secure Center
Goshen Secure Center sits in Orange County about 50 miles northwest of New York City. It has 86 beds and houses youth ages 12 to 21 who are accused of crimes, and it is one of five high-security locked facilities OCFS runs, according to The Imprint. The same state agency that oversees foster care and child protective services statewide is the one holding these young people behind locked doors.
Serrano Rivera was arraigned the day of her arrest and remanded to the Orange County Jail on $1,000 cash bail, a $2,500 bond or a $5,000 secured bond, News 12 reported. She was released Sept. 4 and is due back in court Nov. 10, according to The Imprint. Her attorney declined to comment. The Orange County District Attorney’s Office confirmed an ongoing investigation and declined further comment.
OCFS said it suspended the employee, reported the allegations to the state Justice Center and State Police, and that it does not tolerate mistreatment.
OCFS has zero tolerance for any mistreatment of young people in its care.
Daniel Marans, OCFS spokesperson, to The Imprint
Audit praised posters while abuse claims went uncharged
The Imprint reviewed the facility’s 2024 audit under the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act. Auditor Matthew Burns recorded two sexual abuse allegations in the prior 12 months, one involving a staff member and a resident. Neither led to criminal charges. Burns still found that Goshen met every required standard and praised the facility’s “numerous PREA audit notices and a wide variety of attractive zero-tolerance posters posted throughout.”
Posters are not protection. A paper audit that counts signage while allegations go nowhere is exactly the kind of self-certification that lets abuse in state custody continue. According to The Imprint, no new protective measures had been announced as of Oct. 8.
A pattern across New York youth facilities
Goshen was already under scrutiny. Less than a year before this arrest, public interest lawyers filed a federal class action against state officials alleging prolonged solitary confinement, filthy conditions and denial of disability protections at OCFS facilities; one of the four named plaintiffs was a 17-year-old held at Goshen, The Imprint reported.
Other OCFS-run facilities have produced similar cases, according to The Imprint:
- Maya Hayes, a psychologist at Brookwood Secure Center in the Hudson Valley, was charged in 2024 with more than 60 counts of sexual assault and rape involving eight 16- to 18-year-olds. She pleaded guilty to a third-degree criminal sexual act and in August was sentenced to two and a half years.
- In 2023, a former youth support specialist at the Brentwood Residential Center for Girls in Suffolk County was charged with drugging and raping a 15-year-old resident.
Each case involved an adult employed by the state to keep young people safe. Each involved youth who, by law, could not consent because the state controlled every part of their lives. That is the definition of abuse of power, and it keeps happening inside facilities run by the same agency New York trusts with its foster children.
Key facts
- Accused: Perla T. Serrano Rivera, 22, of Walden, N.Y.
- Charges: Third-degree rape (felony) plus misdemeanors tied to official misconduct and contraband
- Facility: Goshen Secure Center, Orange County, run by the NYS Office of Children and Family Services
- Alleged victim: A 20-year-old resident who police say could not legally consent while confined
- Court: Arrested Sept. 3; released Sept. 4; next court date Nov. 10
- Status: Suspended by OCFS; Orange County DA investigating
Sources
- News 12 Westchester — State employee charged with rape for alleged sexual encounter with Goshen Secure resident (2026-09-10)
- The Imprint — Employee at a New York Youth Detention Facility Faces Sexual Abuse Charges (2026-10-08)
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